"You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit."— Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Part 1: Hunting Ghosts in West Virginia

I
recently investigated the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, WV with
the paranormal team, Louisiana Spirits.
Built in the style reminiscent of a gothic fortress, complete with turrets and battlements,
we stood in front of the stone castle that claimed a recorded 998 deaths.
Nicknamed “The North Side of Hell,” this Moundsville prison was listed as one
of the top ten most violent correctional facilities in the country.

But
this is not a history lesson. If you’re curious about learning more about the
prison’s blood-soaked background, I’d highly recommend a tour of the facility.
However, we are here to talk about ghosts. Stocked with equipment such as
Thermal Cameras, a K-2 meter, a digital EMF meter, and an Olympus digital voice
recorder, we roamed the prison grounds with our eyes and ears open for signs of
the dead.

We
started our investigation with a tour of the penitentiary so that we could
learn its history and its tragedies. Our
guide equipped us with names, locations, types of deaths, and short cuts…all
which aided in our investigation later on. We arrived around 11:30 p.m. and
stayed until 5:30 a.m., using each moment to study, learn, and understand the
ways of the prison and its inhabitants…and I assure you, there are many of
them.

We
spent a great amount of time in the original cafeteria, which leads into the
hallway where sightings of the infamous Shadow Man have been caught on tape.
Aside from a few noises here and there, I was upset that I didn’t feel or
record anything of concrete value there despite the stories of the rooms
immense activity. I even sat in the hallway waiting for the Shadow Man for 20
minutes only to be left alone in the dark with nothing but a wandering mind to
instill fear. For what it’s worth though, the kitchen area was a completely
different story.

While
I personally didn’t hang around there long enough to attempt to get a
recording, the atmosphere was enough to convince me that I wasn’t alone. The
air was thick with tension, and my chest tightened the moment I walked into the
room. I immediately became claustrophobic and the temperature rose, forcing me
to take off my sweatshirt. I felt threatened, smelt smoke, and refused to be
left alone, and once our guide started telling us the history of the room, my
suspicions were confirmed.

The
kitchen area is said to be a violent, malevolent room. People have said that
they’ve smelt sulfur upon entering it, and that scent is common when spirits
are trying to manifest themselves. EVP recordings have picked up the words “legion,”
“devil,” “demon,” and “666,” and when asked if there was a demonic spirit in the
room, the K-2 meter shot up and fluctuated between 7 and 10. Our guide said
that he had done several sittings in the room, and that he actually witnessed
facial manipulations with the people he was with via a spiritual attachment
upon members in the group. I’m all for walking with the darkness, but when the
darkness turns evil, I tend to leave.

The
more I walked the grounds and heard the stories, the more fascinated I became
with the prison. The amount of violence that took place there, not only between
the inmates, but at the hands of the doctors and wardens literally shocked me.
You hear about torture in books and watch it in movies, but let me assure you
that its completely different when you’re standing in front of an electric
chair or looking at the tools used for the “Kicking’ Jenny” or the “Shoe Fly.”
These men were beaten, raped, starved, and executed…some twice because they
wouldn’t die. The spirits that walk those halls are angry and trapped. Their
souls left to wander the same cell blocks were they were tortured to the brink
of insanity and left to die.

But
what happened when insanity didn’t kill them? When it merely clung to them like
a wet blanket, clouding their minds with hallucinations and nightmares?

Why
they entered the Psych Ward of course.

Those
that know my writing and my fascinations in the horror genre will tell you that
I’m obsessed with the insane. The idea of psychological horror intrigued me
enough to work on both a novel and a poetry collection voicing the rants and
ravings of mistreated patients and the doctors that abused their power with
them. When I found out that there was not only an infirmary, but a psychiatric
ward as well, my heart all but jumped with joy. I finally had the opportunity to see the
rooms and the equipment that I was writing about… and lucky for me, I even got
to meet some of the patients. But that's a story for another night. Until next time...

Behind the Madness

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her
work has been showcased in numerous anthologies such as Gutted:
Beautiful Horror Stories, Shadows Over Main Street: An Anthology of
Small-Town Lovecraftian Terror, Year's Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2,
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others.

Wytovich
is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western
Connecticut State University and Point Park University, and a mentor
with Crystal Lake Publishing. She is a member of the Science Fiction
Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association,
and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing
Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection,
Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria:
A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, and
Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare. Her debut novel, The Eighth, is
published with Dark Regions Press.

Follow Wytovich at http://www.stephaniewytovich.com/ and on twitter @SWytovich​.